Notes
by SinnamonGirl
Summary: An alternate timeline story in which Dee and Ryo meet in a coffeehouse during their academy days and decide to take their relationship further  through print.


N O T E S

By: SinnamonGirl

Disclaimer: Fake and all of it's characters belong to Sanami Matoh.

Summary: An alternate timeline story in which Dee and Ryo meet in a coffeehouse during their academy days and decide to take their relationship further - through print.

Okay, I'm not good at haikus, so be warned...

As the bells above the door of the coffeehouse chimed, announcing an arrival, Dee Laytner hid his smile behind the dish rag he was using to dry ceramic mugs. _Same time, always. OCD for sure, but it's kinda cute for all that. _He almost rolled his eyes at the thought. Cute, after all, wasn't usually his thing. He was more of a take-what's-available, hit it fast and run sort of guy... until now.

Dee could remember without effort the day that Ryo Mclean had walked into his life. He'd been on the verge of quitting his job at _The Steven Mallory, _a comfortable low-budget coffeehouse, after another run-in with his manager. Seemed the man was a real stickler for things like dependability and punctuality - and Dee still has some wild oats to sow. Or he had, anyway.

He'd known instinctively - on first sight really - that Ryo wasn't the kind of man who'd appreciate someone who spent his Monday mornings running between coffee and aspirin and the rim of the toilet bowl. He'd cut out his wild nights with Drake and Ted right then (well, mostly) and they'd been quick to comment on the change.

"What's got into you, man? Why don't you want to hang around anymore? You getting to good for us?"

He quickly assured them it wasn't snobbery - his energy was just needed elsewhere, that was all. And since then, he'd been pouring it into one thing: winning Ryo. As a result, he was at work on time everyday - no matter how tired he was after night classes at the Academy - hoping that Ryo might just stop in. He was training to be a police officer the same as Dee was, though he attended classes through the day. Dee had contemplated switching into his class, but he knew he'd never be able to concentrate on work in the same room as Ryo. Those dark, expressive eyes, that soft honey-blond hair... a body that made simple jeans and a tshirt look like a suit and tie... no, he'd never get a thing done besides drooling.

"You gonna dry that cup some more, or are you going to take my order?" Ryo asked, smiling eyes showing that he was just teasing.

Dee recovered quickly and set a cup down in front of him; he'd had the drink made and waiting ten minutes ago. "Like I need to take your order anyway."

Ryo gratefully sipped at the vanilla caramel chai tea. "What if I was feeling adventurous?"

"One can always hope," Dee said with a wink.

Ryo shook his head at him. Dee had been courting him (he couldn't think of a better word for it) for over a year. Remembering his order and having it waiting was just one a dozen small courtesies the brash would-be detective had come up with in the time they'd known each other.

Ryo had seen Dee be rude - even obnoxious - to other people, showing them a tough exterior and a no-nonsense attitude. But with him, Dee was gentle, always trying to please - it was the one thing that had clued Ryo into their age difference. Dee was only a year younger than he was himself, but in those moments when Dee was trying so hard, he could see a childish sort of hopefulness in his face. Ryo doubted that anyone else would have called Dee vulnerable, but sometimes he seemed that way. _Of course, being abandoned as a baby like he was... it makes sense. _

Ryo knew that Dee was looking to him for an end to that abandoned feeling - for a sense of home. Originally, he'd been fairly confident that Dee merely wanted sex... but too much time had passed for him to believe that any longer. He'd put Dee off with every excuse imaginable - he wasn't interested, he wasn't gay, but Dee had persisted. They' become friends, united by their joint aspiration to join the NYPD, and a little more... Sometimes, Ryo let Dee kiss him. Sometimes, Dee insisted. It hadn't gone any farther yet, but secretly, Ryo wouldn't have minded if it did.

"What are you always writing in that thing?" Dee asked him, as Ryo scratched out one word and chose another. "That thing" was a clothbound bargain bin journal - $3.99 at Borders.

"Haikus," Ryo admitted after a moment, a faint blush creeping over his delicate cheekbones.

Dee rearranged a stack of cafe plates; it was mid-afternoon and the coffeehouse was quiet. "Like, poetry?" he asked, curious.

"Uh-huh. A haiku is a Japanese poem. The first and last lines have 5 syllables, and the middle line has 7. The trick is saying something with so few words, especially in English. My mom taught me."

Dee pretended to try to see what he was writing. "Any in there about me?"

Ryo threw a napkin at him. "Not vain at all, are we?" The truth was, raven hair and green eyes made more than a few appearances in the text.

Dee ran a hand through his black locks, intensely conscious of what an attractive figure he made in the amber light of afternoon. "Not at all."

Business called him away for the rest of Ryo's time in the cafe, but he smiled at the blond as he dropped the receipt off. Ryo skimmed the paper idly; then noticed something below the total on the customer copy.

_Ryo -_

_Write your fantasies down for me - in haikus if you want. I know I could fulfill them._

_Dee _

Ryo's breath caught in his throat. It was more than Dee had ever dared before... and it was definitely unexpected! He hurried to pay his bill and get out of the coffeehouse - he needed to think.

Outside, on a park bench, he tried to pull himself together, struggling to breathe evenly again. Write his fantasies down? Damn him - how did he know Dee was in his fantasies, anyway?

And under the shock, he felt the first stirrings of pleasure. The idea did have some appeal to it. Dee knew he was shy, after all. Saying the things he'd been thinking... Ryo wasn't sure he could do that, but maybe he could tell him with a pen and paper.

For two weeks, he struggled. Erasing, rewriting, pawing through an old thesaurus to find _just _the right word - his poems were causing him more stress than his days at the Academy! Sometimes he got angry at Dee for his request - his challenge. Writing haikus had always been a peaceful activity for Ryo in the past, a way of capturing small written snapshots of the city that he loved. Emptying his heart out onto paper was another matter entirely... and distilling the thoughts he had about Dee - the things he wanted Dee to do to him - into three lines was almost impossible.

"I didn't think you'd be back," he said quietly, trying to keep his voice from betraying him. When Ryo had left with the note, Dee had known it would be a gamble. And for the last two weeks he'd been sure that he'd driven the one person he wanted forever out of his life for good. He couldn't count the number of times he'd had to stop himself from calling Ryo up and begging his forgiveness, or walking to his apartment just to see if he was okay.

"I had some writing to do," Ryo said, placing a small manilla envelope on the table beside him.

Dee felt his heart surge into his mouth, tasting of iron and rose petals at the same time. "T-then... you? This?" he pointed at the envelope. His hands were trembling; he was glad he wasn't holding a cup.

Ryo calmly sipped his coffee. He thought that letting Dee dangle a little was only fair... after all, he'd had him all but pulling his hair out over the words in that envelope. "Is for you," he said at last. "But I've been thinking, shouldn't I be getting something too?"

"Baby, I'll give you anything you want. You should know that."

"Even if it was written?"

Dee never missed a beat. "Marriage contract coming up!"

Ryo chuckled. "Should I count that as your proposal? Isn't twenty-two awful young to be tied down?" For all his teasing, he was fairly certain that Dee _would _have married him right then if he asked it. He wondered why he'd put him off so long.

Dee quirked an eyebrow at him. "Depends on whose doin' the tying..." He smiled to see Ryo blush. "So whatcha want me to write, Ryo? I'm not real good at that sort of thing, poetry an' all..." Nervousness showed in his face.

Ryo reached for his hand, something he'd never done before in a public place. "It doesn't have to be poetry, Dee. Just the truth. What you see. What you want."

Dee swallowed, licked his lips. What he wanted? He thought it was pretty obvious. "When?"

"Whenever you're finished." He winked. "I'll wait for you."

Dee laughed at the joke; he'd been waiting for Ryo for a year. "And if I write down what you want, you'll?"

Ryo couldn't help but chuckle at the disbelief and hope in Dee's green eyes. "I'll?" Dee was so fond of trying to get him to be more direct, more explicit.

Dee lowered his head until their faces were almost touching. "You'll be mine?"

Ryo nodded. "Uh-huh."

Dee drew back, shaking from the force of his emotions. Ryo was actually going to be his! "I wish you'd asked me to write something earlier," he teased, voice still unsteady. "We coulda sped things up!"

Ryo just smiled.

That night, Dee reverently opened the plain, unmarked manilla envelope. Ryo's words were typed on ordinary sheets of 8 x 10 paper - and they_ were _in haikus!

Your eyes open me

Defenseless I surrender

Become what you need

Dee - your name sounding

Holy, sacred in my mouth

My screams your reward

I never thought I

Would find love like this -- I see

My life in green eyes

He wept when he read some of the three line poems. Others made his blood burn, his groin tighten. Ryo, his shy little Ryo, had some pretty wild ideas! And all he had to do to get him to act on them was share his own fantasies. Dee pulled a pencil out of a drawer and spun it through his fingers.

He wasn't much of a writer - he'd told Ryo that. Even at the Academy he read and wrote only what he was forced to. But this time it wasn't a tired instructor who'd rather be on the streets than behind a desk reading his words - it was the man he loved. The man who loved him. He settled the pencil against the page.

The ringing of his doorbell startled Ryo out of his reverie. He'd been reading up on criminal procedure when the package came. Inside was a battered notebook. Ryo's breath caught as he turned the pages.

Ryo,

I said this would be hard for me. It is, but you're worth it. And even though I know I couldn't ever do it for anyone else, I don't mind.

You asked me to tell you what I see. That's easy. You're all I've ever wanted, Ryo - you've gotta know that by now. You're beautiful, sexy... your dark eyes, soft hair, the muscles I see under your shirt. But it's more than that - more than the way you look or the way your lips feel on mine, the way you feel in my arms.

You're smart too - I know you'll probably be a better cop than me. You're gentle and kind - the kind of person that other people want to be around. You're generous and you don't judge people. I feel like a better version of myself when you're around, or maybe you just see me better than I really am. Either way, I'm grateful for it, just like I'm grateful for your friendship. You've been really patient with me, even when I pushed and pushed. I'm sorry for that, but I just wanted you so bad. Hey, I told you what you're like - surely you can see why? I wasn't going to let someone that special get away!

More than anything, I just wanted to say what you already know is true. I love you, Ryo. For yourself. I love everything about you and I might not be bringing as much to the table as you are, but I'll do my best to make you happy, and I'll never lose you.

Love,

Dee

P.S. As for what I want... how about I show you? See you tonight.

He'd written more after that, but it was the first letter that charmed Ryo, that made him glad that he had been brave enough to answer Dee's challenge and give him the haikus. It was right that he should be with Dee. He waited impatiently for evening.

Dee arrived shortly after six. He wore a white button-down shirt, the satin lines in it glowing faintly in the dim hallway. His dark hair was styled back, but even so it was escaping, working its way steadily toward his eyes. His eyes were lit from within, shining. Ryo gasped when he saw him. "What?" Dee teased. "I told you I cleaned up good."

Ryo was still gaping; he was wearing a faded pair of jeans and a t-shirt. "Y-you didn't have to get all dressed up."

Dee crossed the threshold, overwhelming Ryo (as he always did) with his sheer presence: his confident air, his lithe muscled body, and his predatory grin. Though Ryo was always conscious of the difference in their sizes and body types, he wasn't bothered by it. Dee made him feel comfortable, protected. So when the younger detective lifted him into his arms for a kiss, Ryo didn't protest. Dee's mouth claimed him, warm and insistent, and Ryo let his head fall back, offering him complete access. When they broke apart, both were breathing hard.

Dee moaned a little in appreciation. "Oh, baby, you can't know how I've wanted this..."

Ryo reached up, letting his fingers cross his lover's face. "Yes I do. Dee... I've wanted you too. I'm sorry it took so long."

Dee held him tighter. "No apologies. Sometimes that's how things need to be. You needed to sort out your feelings." He smiled. "But now that you're all sorted out, how 'bout we get you out of these clothes?"

Ryo pointed the way to his bedroom, letting Dee carry him to the bed. With anyone else the action would have made him feel less of a man, but with Dee it was a tribute to everything he was, a sign of how much the green-eyed man loved him. As he was laid back on the comforter, he reached for one of Dee's hands. "Dee, you know I've never..."

"I know, baby. Don't worry. We'll go at your pace."

"I want you to feel good too," Ryo protested as Dee did away with the t-shirt and began kissing down his body.

Dee lifted his head, his chin against Ryo's waistband. He eyes were fire-bright, a burning green that made Ryo's temperature go up just meeting them. "Oh, I will."

To Ryo's surprise, Dee moved slowly. He kissed his fingertips and knuckles, drawing the digits into his mouth. His warm breath against his hands made Ryo buck against him. Then he laid down beside him, loosening clothing, drawing their bodies together until they were breathing in time. And he whispered in Ryo's ear, praising him, arousing him further. At one point, Ryo shuddered and pulled away.

"You... you're so _good_, Dee."

He dipped his head shyly, a gesture that charmed his partner. "Well, I had good instructions."

"The haikus?" His breathing was still unsteady, giving a breathiness to his words, and he couldn't keep his eyes away from the undone zipper on Dee's pants.

"Yeah. Am I doin' okay?"

Ryo clung to him. "You're everything I ever wanted. But Dee, you don't have to work them all into one night!"

Dee flushed a little. "I just wanted you to feel good."

"I do. But let's take care of you too, huh?" He finished off the buttons on Dee's shirt and carefully guided it off of his shoulders. Leaning forward, he scattered kisses across the muscles of his chest, inhaling a scent that was part nicotine, part gunpowder, and part champagne - and all Dee. The dark-haired man was clearly stunned at Ryo taking the initiative, and as much as he struggled to stay upright and reach for his partner, Ryo soon had him on his back, eyes closed, fingers clenched in the covers.

"Uhhh... unnn... Ryo..." he moaned, twisting side to side under his partner's ministrations. Ryo smiled, thinking that he was seeing - causing, even! - the undoing of Dee Laytner.

Only in his fantasies was he brave enough to ask what he was about to ask, to do what he was about to do. "Do you want me to take your pants off, Dee?" he asked, voice pitched low and seductive.

Dee gasped at his words and he felt sweat bead his brow. "Please, baby, please..." He knew that he should be asking Ryo if he was okay with this, if he really wanted to, but somehow the dynamics of the act had shifted and his timid lover had ended up in control of things. Dee considered himself a good lover, he'd been sure that he could please Ryo, but over a year without any touches but his own left him at Ryo's mercy.

It felt like days passed as Ryo lowered his dress pants, guided his boxers over his length. Dee moaned the entire time, unable to remain quiet as Ryo stroked him, running deft fingers over his shaft. When he bent his head - breathing low, sacred breaths against him - Dee almost screamed.

"You're close, aren't you?" Ryo asked with a coy smile.

Dee knew that he could lie, but he was way past thinking of basketball scores or his textbooks to try to delay the inevitable. "Yes," he managed through clenched teeth, shudders running through him as Ryo continued to tease him.

When the blond decided to take him into his mouth it was like he knew - though he had never seen Dee naked before - just how far gone he was, just what it would take.

Ryo's tongue glided down his length while his lips tightened around him, tugging him deeper into the warmth of his mouth. Dee bucked and writhed, his muscles coiling into tighter and tighter rings. At the last possible instant before climax, Ryo pulled away, and said against him, "I love you, Dee Laytner."

That did it. And Dee knew nothing for the next several minutes, senses gone in a blinding sweep of light and heat. When he came to, Ryo was kneeling above him, grinning.

Dee's eyelashes fluttered against his cheeks. "You look pretty proud of yourself."

Ryo ran his tongue over his lips. "I am."

Dee smiled. "Showing me up, huh, whelp?" He pushed him over so that their positions were reversed. Ryo still smiled. "What can I do for you?"

Ryo placed his lips at his ear, whispered. "Make me yours. Take me."

Those few words were enough to make Dee hard all over again. "Are you sure?" He didn't want their first time to be anything but wonderful for Ryo - just like the words they'd written to each other. Ryo ran a hand through his hair, easing him.

"Dee, I want you. Please, love me."

"I do," Dee said, removing the rest of Ryo's clothing, "I do."

Preparing the blond proved easy. Though there was resistance, Ryo was eager, moving his hips as Dee opened him with his fingers. Heat blazed through him, the same as it had when he'd taken Dee in his mouth, but more intense now, more urgent. "Please, Dee," he managed before trailing off into mewling, whimpering sounds. Dee kissed and sucked at the back of his neck.

"Easy, love. I don't want to hurt you."

"I don't care if it hurts," Ryo insisted, wiggling and bucking beneath him. "I want you inside me."

Dee felt his resistance fail inside of him; he pressed hard against his lover. "Say it again, Ryo."

Ryo lifted his hips, offering silent encouragement. "Take me, Dee."

Dee bit down hard on the back of his neck, thrusting inside of him. "Yes." Ryo cried out once, tensing at the invasion. "Let me in, baby," Dee murmured. Ryo pushed back against him, taking him deeper. Dee gasped as his warmth surrounded him as he sank deeper and deeper into bliss. His hand reached out, wrapping around Ryo's cock, pumping, stroking. "I want to give you everything, Ryo."

Ryo was shuddering beneath him, gasping, begging. The sounds didn't reach Dee's ears as words - just pleas that he was glad to answer. When Ryo's body arched against him, sweat-slick and beautiful, Dee felt himself unraveling again, joining his lover in his climax. Their lips touched again, once, and Dee thought that he finally understood poetry.

When Ryo awoke, it was late. Dee had already left for his night classes, but the smell of him remained in the blankets and in his skin. On the night stand was a note.

Ryo,

a haiku for you:

Fucking amazing

Your body, lips, your hot cries

Be mine forever

Yours are in frames at my place. Come see them (and me) soon!

Love,

Dee


End file.
